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I see many high end boards have Intel LAN chip but some also have Realtek chip esp. if it is 5Gbe LAN. Almost all low end and cheap boards have Realtek LAN chip (usually RTL8125). Should we avoid the v boards with Realtek LAN? What is the driver situation for Linux?
The wifi chip is just an m.2 module which can be replaced. So need not be that concerned about it but LAN is permanent. (yes we could get a USB/Pcie LAN but that is not the point)
What chip is in your mobo and were there any issues? Preferably the 2.5Gbe ones.
I suspect it’s an airflow issue because the port starts working again after a cool down period. But I’m hesitant to trust them again so I just started using inexpensive add-in cards instead.
TP-Link’s PCIe ethernet adapter which is realtek based has had far fewer failures, about 1 in 20 but that one failed card never recovered. So it was probably a manufacturing fluke.
Most people (LTT, et al) also do not prefer Aquantia’s 10Gbe adapters (for reasons I have not investigated) but they work very well for me, as add-in cards (no experience with onboard).
Very surprisingly, ASIX’s usb ethernet adapters have been exceptionally reliable, even if they’re connected to the chipset ports instead of processor’s USB ports. Easily more reliable than than onboard for the same (heavy) use case.
Realtek drivers suck for the most devices, and most of the networking and Linux community hates them with their gut. For gaming PCs and non-mission critical work, doesn’t really matter. I personally prefer intel NICs, but haven’t ever tried anything other than gigabit networking.
